Various forms of storage systems are used today. These forms include direct attached storage (DAS) network attached storage (NAS) systems, storage area networks (SANs), and others. Network storage systems are commonly used for a variety of purposes, such as providing multiple users with access to shared data, backing up data and others.
A storage system typically includes at least one computing system executing a storage operating system for storing and retrieving data on behalf of one or more client computing systems (“clients”). The storage operating system stores and manages shared data containers in a set of mass storage devices.
Storage systems are used by server systems, executing applications such as Exchange and SQL to store and replicate (may also be referred to as “back-up”) data. Replication of server data can be a complicated and processing-intensive task. In order to help ensure data reliability, replication tasks often are verified before a replication can be considered reliable, which can strain networked storage systems.
Conventional remote verification processes include the use of two different servers. A first server initiates a backup procedure, which then employs a second server to run a verification process. Throughout the verification process, a connection is held open between the first and second servers, which can degrade performance or result in duplicative processing if a connection is lost for any reason. Additionally, the verification process cannot be completed if the first server goes down. Continuous efforts are being made to improve backup and verification tasks to provide efficient and reliable data replication.